(19)
(11) EP 1 591 939 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
17.01.2007 Bulletin 2007/03

(43) Date of publication A2:
02.11.2005 Bulletin 2005/44

(21) Application number: 05102833.0

(22) Date of filing: 11.04.2005
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC): 
G06F 17/60(0000.00)
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU MC NL PL PT RO SE SI SK TR
Designated Extension States:
AL BA HR LV MK YU

(30) Priority: 28.04.2004 US 835373

(71) Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Redmond, WA 98052 (US)

(72) Inventor:
  • Little, Charles Reeves
    98052, Redmond, WA (US)

(74) Representative: Grünecker, Kinkeldey, Stockmair & Schwanhäusser Anwaltssozietät 
Maximilianstrasse 58
80538 München
80538 München (DE)

   


(54) Social Network Email Filtering


(57) Social network email filtering is described. A user's address book includes a first group of email addresses. Those email addresses are used to identify address books that include another group of email addresses. Multiple iterations may be used to identify several groups of email addresses, representing a user's social network. When an email message addressed to the user is received, the message is trusted if the sending email address is within the user's social network. Otherwise, the message is flagged as junk mail. Varying trust levels may be applied to messages that are received based on a distance within a social network between the sending email address and the user and/or how often the sending email address appears within the social network.







Search report